- america! - the strategies, the message, the divisiveness, the racism-- they never want it to change. they wanted to perfect it. they wanted to weaponize it. they succeeded in some ways, and yet, in shakespearean fashion, the success has been very short-lived. [dramatic string music] ♪ - faith and patriotism are pretty much one in the same. and rudy was very much cut from that cloth and made no bones about it. - but when he was a prosecutor he was smart, he was tough, he was creative. - he was a perfect match for new york city. he was a perfect match for a tabloid culture. and he was brash and he was, you know, he was a self-promoter.

- rudolph giuliani, thank you for being with us. - thank you. - and in new york city's race for mayor, democrat david dinkins is leading in the polls over republican rudolph giuliani. - all of a sudden, david dinkins comes along, riding the wave of, you know, he was gonna be the first black mayor. and that was at a time when that had a real kind of emotional resonance, both within new york and nationally. - it was a historic day for new york and a triumphant moment for the biggest black population of any american city. - quiet! quiet! - rudy very quickly seems to have made the decision to embrace the sort of racism that a lot of his party believed in. - white power! - ♪ i saw god out on the block today ♪ ♪ ♪ he was darker than the preachers say ♪ ♪ with a teardrop tattooed on his face ♪ ♪ and dirt in his fingers ♪

♪ i heard angels when he laughed the way ♪ ♪ that people do when they have known true pain ♪ ♪ for his sins i don't know who to blame ♪ ♪ what choice was he given? ♪ in this world that we're livin' ♪ ♪ when i see you, i see you ♪ ♪ i see love i see love ♪ ♪ i see america ♪ i see love ♪ when i see you, i see you ♪ ♪ i see love i see love ♪ ♪ i see america - on a bright winter day, former federal prosecutor rudolph giuliani was inaugurated as the 107th mayor of new york. his son, andrew, by his side, he exhorted new yorkers to help him make dramatic changes. - the era of fear has had a long enough reign. the period of doubt has run its course.

- i look at rudy giuliani as the greatest mayor in the history of our country, and i look at him as one of the greatest prosecutors in the history of our country. - i'm gonna have a co-addressee, i guess, andrew. [andrew giggling] - i do remember reading his speech and him reading his speech. they say new york is ungovernable. - new york is not governable. - they say that businesses are leaving. - all of these, i declare politically incorrect. - rudy giuliani. [cheers and applause] - i just find it funny that people sort of thought of him as america's mayor, 'cause that wasn't rudy giuliani. the giuliani of that '92 riot-- that's rudy giuliani. [heavy music] ♪ - the city hall's steps is new york city's front steps. it's the front porch. [crowd chanting] [crowd chanting]

[overlapping shouting] [dramatic musical sting] - if you wanted to see an early version of january 6, 2021, go look at the footage of the police riot of 1992 city hall in new york city. [cheers and applause] - thousands of off-duty cops who normally patrol the streets now taking them over outside city hall. - i'm just tired of watching crime run rampant, and we're not doing anything about it because our hands are tied. every time we do something, it seems like we're getting indicted. - they had come for a big demonstration around city hall. you know they came prepared for the battle. you could see the anger in their faces, and you know that they meant business. [crowd chanting] - it was a show of force on the steps of new york city hall. 10,000 off-duty cops banded together in protest, fed up and angry with the city they claim doesn't back them up.

the mayor's plan for an all-civilian board to review police misconduct is the last straw that sent the force to the streets. - mayor dinkins proposed a change in the civilian complaint review board that at that time had half citizens, civilians, and half police officers on it. - let's assume this is the worst legislation known to man. it's clear to me that the police officers who were demonstrating misbehaved. that's real clear. [overlapping shouting] - keepers of the law became the lawless. - so you look back, and you see an inevitable parallel between those two events. - it's very angry. there had been some drinking by some of the officers beforehand, there was some racist signs being held. - the demonstration turned ugly. racial slurs were uttered. - but some of them out there yesterday who were calling out nigger, for instance-- - and they were holding up signs about dinkins is a washroom attendant.

- why would the people of our communities have confidence that they have the capacity to handle a tense situation? - so, seething with anger, they overtook the steps of city hall. [shouting and cheering] - eventually turned into a major disturbance... - knock them all down! - with a lot of disorderly behavior. - literally thousands of police. when you saw that crowd, it was absolutely breathtaking. and they were violent. and their main speaker was rudy giuliani. - thank you. - he got up and led them in the most provocative chants. when i saw rudy be identified with january 6th, i said he did a dress rehearsal at the police riot against dave dinkins. - rudy went down there, and i went with him. and the idea was to show support for the cops. he didn't know he was gonna attend a "racist" rally.

[chatter, crowd commotion] - we were standing there looking out through the bars. jimmy breslin got roughed up. he was the columnist. una clark was a city councilman. some people in this mob tried to block her from walking to city hall and they said, "who are you?" and she said, "i'm a city council woman," and they said, "this nigger says she's a city council woman." - "do you believe that n is a council member?" so i just told them, i said, "i'm a jamaican, and there are no ns where i come from." - they climbed the various steps of government and felt comfortable to call the mayor of the city a nigger. it's outrageous. if david duke had a police department, it would look and sound like this group of people. - there was a real sense of mob rule. but on the inside, there was a sense of, "let's just hold the building." - i was ready to knock them out the street, you know, with my small hands. i was not letting those big bully guys intimidate me at all.

- they were a drunken disorderly mob of armed men who besieged city hall. it was one of those moments where the democracy had pretty much unraveled. - the mayor doesn't know why the morale of the new york city police department is so low. - rudy claims that he tried to drive them all to speaking platform that was a block away on church street and murray. - he blames it on phil caruso. he blames it on guy meloneras. he blames it on me. he blames it on you. - rudy gave a very angry speech in support of the police against the concept of the ccib. - and the cops have always taken a, you know, a very militant line against that. and rudy played right into that. - the reason morale of the police department of the city of new york is so low is one reason and one reason alone--david dinkins.

[cheers and applause] - truthfully, i was not witness to any of those racist comments that were reported later. i did hear rudy yell bullshit, which did antagonize the crowd which was already antagonized. - he led that chant in front of city hall with a sitting mayor to people that had openly to use the n word. and he did not admonish them for using it, and he did not admonish them for violence. - some of the very same people who were at city hall were at the capitol on that day. this almost look like january 6th to me. - rudy giuliani whipping up the crowd, just like he did, just like donald trump did on january 6th.

- let's have trial by combat. - the most racist and denigrating language, still staying within certain boundaries, but as, you know, dog whistling at its extreme. the notion that he whipped up armed people to riot, it wasn't just to protest or chant. they've stomped on cars. they literally were in a state of chaos. - rudy giuliani join them in that riot. it was a very, very frightening time, and it only escalated racial tensions. - i think it was a planned riot for city hall. i think that the higher ups in the police department all were in concert. they wanted david dinkins to go. - i think it was a low point in the history of the city. i mean, i don't know how any of the cops who were there that day could look themselves in the mirror and say that they did anything good for new york.

- and for rudy giuliani to urge them on, as it were, demonstrates an irresponsibility on his behalf. - the 1992 police protest was sort of the birth of rudy as fascist. - reason and one reason alone-- david dinkins. - rudy giuliani showed who he was that day. that's the watershed day in rudy giuliani's life, because the rudy giuliani before 1989, who really did contribute to a better city, turned into a guy who was willing to do anything to get elected, no matter how vicious, no matter how racist. and it began in earnest that day in 1992. a force to be reckon with. no, not you saquon. hm? you! your business bank account with quickbooks money, now earns 5% apy. 5% apy? that's new! yup, that's how you business differently.

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[crowd chanting] dinkins, dinkins, dinkins! how much you can save. - on the surface, it looks like nothing's changed from 1989. the same two candidates are at it again. - i think, frankly, that our city is more at peace than some would think. - the present mayor sees problems

as things that you kind of make excuses about to avoid. i see problems as a challenge to do better. - the nickname a lot of us for rudy in those days was mighty whitey. you know, race is a big thing in every city, and this one included. - the city has been wracked by a series of ethnic upheavals. three nights of street violence erupted in the crown heights section of brooklyn. - david dinkins mishandled a couple of terrible incidents in new york, such as the crown heights riot. - the car veered out of control and pinned two children beneath its wheels as it careened onto the sidewalk and ran into an apartment building. the accident killed seven-year-old gavin kato and seriously injured his cousin, angela. - a kid was killed by a jewish person driving a car. i think what angered people most of all was the fact that the driver of the car went off. folks wanted to make sure that there would be justice. - enraged onlookers, who's angry words with police escalated into a mini riot, during which a shot was fired

at police, a patrol car and another car were torched, and members of the area's lubavitcher hasidic community say they were randomly attacked. police say the murder of a 29-year-old hasidic student from australia late last night appears to have been a revenge attack for the car accident. all: no justice, no peace! - mayor dinkins hasn't heard before. he better hear now. jewish blood is not cheap. - the jewish community felt that dinkins favored the black community at the time, that he let them vent for two plus days. that was the word of the day, "that he let them vent." - violence is never ever the solution. - no justice. - no peace. - mayor dinkins was blamed for not stopping the riots sooner. - a state-commissioned report said the mayor had been slow to act. - and that gained a lot of attention. that really was a turning point.

- giuliani has referred to the crown heights rioting, which resulted in the death of a rabbinical student, as a pogrom, a term for anti-jewish organized action. - what has been going on the last two days is outrageous, has not been here since the pogroms. - three of my four grandparents died in the holocaust, and i know what a pogrom is, and i know what a pogrom isn't, and that was not a pogrom. but he called it a pogrom, and it stuck. - the hate and mistrust on both sides mounts, and no bridge towards understanding is in sight. - he used crown heights, acting as if dave jenkins was antisemitic, and every other race-based inference he could. - i think that if david dinkins were white, the attacks would not have worked on him. race baiters and haters of black people, they thought they were putting david dinkins in his place. - everybody in the city knows that david dinkins is incapable of making a decision.

- i did not expect the shocking de-evolution of rudy giuliani. and all of the nobility that was evident before he ran in 1989 was thrown out the window. he tried, in every way he could, to motivate white voters with racist appeals. - the original issues have become muddled in this fight. now, whether it's a battle between cops and the mayor, or blacks and whites, all sides have gone to marshal their supporters. - this race is different because dinkins now has a record to run on. he's not just the first african-american mayor. he's the first african-american mayor with a record that we can run against. certain reporters insisted on categorizing as the race race because, you know, that sells more papers. - can this former prosecutor, can he actually be the one to come in and help bring new york into the right direction? the giuliani playbook is successful.

the giuliani playbook is game changing. - but i do have a lot of hard work, a very different way of governing this city. ♪ - quality of life was to appeal to a lot of white, upper middle class disturbed by somebody maybe wanting to wash their windshield, hoping to get a dollar or two. - here, voters are socially and fiscally conservative. no matter the falling crime rates, aggressive street beggars, and even graffiti and litter are lowering the quality of life. - the present mayor runs away from that. it's statistics he doesn't understand. - taking out window wipers and people that would ask for a dime or two on the subway-- the focus was cosmetic. - we wanna show people improvement in the quality of their life, that things are getting better for them, that things are safer, quieter.

- so that he would give the perception that, "i'm taking care of crime. "i'm getting all the nuisance out of the way. these criminals are threat to your tranquility." and it was all optics. - new york and new jersey, it's your decision day. - four more years! four more years! - giuliani people tell me that they are worried about voter fraud. - it's politics, everything's a rashomon, right? it's how you perceive it and how your supporters perceive it, you know. is it a vase, or is it two profiles? and that's how you win, okay? that's unfortunately how you win. - new york city voters that made their decision. rudy giuliani to become the first republican mayor of new york city since 1965. - i'm standing before you as the next mayor of new york city. - people were fed up enough that they were willing to go, you know, in a whole new direction with rudy. - what do you think is the single biggest reason

that you won? - i think that we offered new leadership for new york city and we were willing to take on problems like quality of life and restoring jobs in new york city. - it's a blood sport, it always has been. it's just gotten bloodier. [escalating music]

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a continued pause in fighting and more aid from israelis in exchange for just freeing more hostages. instead, hamas resumed attacks. not to protect the palestinian people or obtain peace, only to destroy israel. we must stand against hamas and stand with palestinians and israelis for basic human rights. - rudy giuliani became mayor of new york city and israelis for for a lot of the same reasons donald trump became president, because he capitalized on white fear. [energetic music] - he won that race by 52,000 votes, which was the differential, you now, to put him over the top. we did a city-wide thank you tour. and we went to all the boroughs and thanked the people who wanted to be thanked, and ignored the people who were booing. ♪ - he's driven by a desire to be worshipped. - i'd like to introduce the new police commissioner

of new york city, bill bratton. - i came in with my eyes wide open on the police. i could do something about it because i believed that i had a formula to do something about it. - do you have any idea how many arrests we made on that other than the homicides? do we have any idea? - we said, "we're gonna use statistical evidence." they had this system called compstat that divided the city into little units. wherever the crime was, we're gonna flood those units. he had a bunch of techniques that drove crime down. - disorder was being attended to because that was a big part of what bratton brought to the table, was broken windows policing, meaning stop people from aggressive panhandling, from literally breaking windows. - we were able to turn the city crime around as we had done in the subways three years before. and through 2018, crime pretty much continued to go down in the city every year. - we had, just by the statistics,

over 2,000 murders a year, from 1990 to 1993. for prospective, by the end of the 1990s, it was under 600 murders a year. - but the catalyst for it was the combination of rudy and dinkins. - present arms! - without the 6,000 police officers that dinkins had been able to successfully lobby in albany for, the speed with which you were able to begin turning around the crime situation would not have happened that quickly, and maybe might not have happened at all. - when bratton was riding high and everything's going great, except rudy did not wanna share the credit. and when bratton appeared on the cover that "time magazine" piece about, you know, america's policing and what's happening now, and he's posed in the story as the big hero-- ay yi yi. - i was pictured wearing a trench coat under the brooklyn bridge with flashing red lights and police cars. the front-page cover was, "finally, we're winning the war on crime.

here's why." - rudy was his boss. there was plenty of credit to go around, except that there wasn't. - well, that was the end for him. i mean, he was fired, i think, within a number of months. i don't think he lasted 90 days after that cover came out. - i just met with the mayor, mayor giuliani, this morning and have given to him my letter of resignation as the police commissioner for the city of new york. - it happened yesterday. he resigned. now, we're moving on. and i've said everything i wanna say about it. - mr. mayor, what about the police department? - this department is in terrific shape. - the person who was the architect of this new approach was now gone, and the people who inherited the machinery thought they understood it. but it wasn't clear that they did. this was gonna be rudy's department. and the good work that the department was doing was gonna be something that rudy took credit for, and rudy alone. - just kind of like fredo, he wanted to prove he's smart too. there was a street crime unit. it may be the only police unit called elite

that actually was elite. he says, "oh, that's a big success. let's make it bigger." the planning officer says, "you can't do that because "you're gonna start bringing in people who aren't select, "and they're gonna start screwing up. and you're gonna get people shot." - what's the lesson for the other great cities of the world in what's happening here in new york? - to manage a police department, to reduce crime, to concentrate on quality-of-life issues, to do all the things that were so controversial a year ago. - and he comes on and says, "this is how you do it. "you go sit in that corner, you stay there, black boy, you stay there, black lady." - across the river, new york mayor rudy giuliani is expected to win reelection in a landslide. - new york city is the greatest city in america. - rudy giuliani was saying, "you can walk the streets. you can be safe again. i want to continue that." that kind of fear he put in white folks in the city. fear--that is what brought him back into office. - thank you very much to all of the people of the city of new york for giving me four more years as your mayor.

- the body of 22-year-old amadou diallo was taken from the bronx in new york this afternoon. he died in his apartment doorway at 12:40 a.m. february 4th, struck by police bullets 19 times. 41 shots were fired. - he took out his wallet to identify himself. they thought it was a gun. one of them yelled gun. 41 shots fired between the four officers, killing him. so that whole concept of the rapid expansion of the unit was a management disaster, and horrific series of trials after that. - daily bitter demonstrations of outrage, giuliani was blasted for being insensitive to minorities' concerns about police brutality. - now you had daily marches with people going to jail in protests. and while he did not meet with me, as manhattan borough president, on matters related to governance,

at the request of peter belone, who was the speaker of the city council, called and asked if i, along with him, would meet with the mayor. so i said, "okay." we went to gracie mansion to meet with giuliani, and my message was to him. we needed the voice of a mayor who was going to take some action in order to bring about some changes. and there was totally silence from this mayor. - reports of a grotesque act of police misconduct, abner louima was taken to the 78th precinct, forced to strip in a bathroom, and then sodomized with a toilet plunger. - abner louima was raped, sodomized. they took him in the basement of a precinct, with 200 cops in the building. and nobody stopped the cop and nobody turned him in. rudy stood with that.

crime has gone down in new york everywhere but in the new york city police department. - you're walking down the street, unmarked car pulls out. a bunch of guys with guns jump out. they're not identifying themselves necessarily as cops, and they swarm on some guy on the sidewalk. it was a disaster waiting to happen, and the disaster happened. - dorismond was shot by undercover detectives who were looking to bust drug dealers on 8th avenue. they asked dorismond where they could buy drugs. the gun of detective anthony vasquez went off in the struggle. - rudy giuliani, to me, is and was a thug. patrick dorismond, you know, the way he was killed by giuliani's gang. amadou diallo, somebody who was killed by rudy giuliani's gang. that was rudy giuliani's new york. - nobody is profiling anyone by race. there is profiling that is going on based upon criminality. - the worst official reaction was to patrick dorismond, who ended up being shot dead by undercover agents because he refused to buy drugs from them.

and giuliani actually leaked his sealed record of petty offenses in his past, and claimed he was no altar boy. - would not wanna have a picture presented of an altar boy, when in fact, maybe it isn't an altar boy. - and in fact, it turned out he was an altar boy. - mayor giuliani, this was an undercover operation. where the police wearing wires? - no, i don't believe they were, but i'm not sure of that. - you can certainly trace a line to the police reaction to the george floyd protests in 2020, you know, in the sense of this police outrage, that they wouldn't be reined in in any way. - some of these most horrific killings that we have seen. - eric garner being taken down by mostly plainclothes police officers while being placed under arrest. - i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe, man. mama, i love you.

- if not for being videoed, we would never have known. there was no mistake about what we saw with the murder of george floyd. i think we have to be willing to go a little further and delve a little deeper and just not accepting it. - motions over the patrick dorismond shooting boiled over in violence. - this arrogant mayor has shown such disregard for the concerns of a large percentage of new york city residents as it relates to police brutality. - what is happening in our society is the displacement of responsibility, from the places where it belongs to the police. - there was a general ethos that he didn't care, and that this was acceptable or permissible. if stop and frisk was problematic because of the way it was being carried out, these brutality cases were that on steroids times 100. how you handle law enforcement so that it is both effective and you have a safe city, but also

respect to the due process and the rule of law for everybody is an equally important task. and he didn't seem to care about that as a requisite for the position he had. - oh, get out of here. cut out your irresponsible, stupid, ridiculous charges. take the microphone away. sorry, mr. hanley. that's the end of the conversation. - new yorkers were really getting tired of this. it was constant confrontation for no reason. he couldn't find another gear. he couldn't move on to some greater vision of the city or the country, so that even when things go well, he's looking for a fight. - welcome back. this is rudy giuliani on wabc. and we will go to the phones. - david goodhart, the executive president of new york ferrets' rights... - there's something deranged about you. - no, there is, in fact. the point being-- - the excessive concern that you have for ferrets is something you should examine with a therapist.

- it's no secret to new yorkers that the mayor and his wife donna hanover lead independent lives. but today, he makes it official, a formal separation. - he's out of control, this guy. he cleaned up new york. he made it better. he thinks he, like, runs the world. - the brooklyn art museum's exhibit entitled "sensation," featuring a dung-decorated painting of the blessed mother. - i think this show is disgusting. it's a terrible, terrible use of government funds. and i think we'll do everything we can to remove funding for the brooklyn museum until the director comes to his senses. - his second term, he became a guy i really didn't like. i went from a guy, like, "yeah, not so bad," to like, "ugh!" - and this started to rankle a lot of people in a lot of corners of the city, the animal lovers, the culture lovers. the black and brown folks were already, you know, clear that rudy was not gonna be their kind of guy. you know, so his coalition just started to fall apart piece by piece. "this is enough already. let's move on." - and then the parade had passed. it was done.

now even his personal life was an embarrassment. his intolerance was unacceptable to a lot of people. he was really done. i think september 10th, he came out of city hall. watched him go down the steps with his entourage. not a single person looked at him, not a single tourist asked for his picture. no one even looked. and he just went right by all these people--nothing. and not 24 hours later, he was like--there he was. - good morning. 64 degrees at 8:00. it's tuesday, september 11th. i'm lee harris. here's what's happening. thousands of new yorkers will enter the polls to cast ballots for mayor and a host of other city offices on primary day. catholic high school teachers-- [dark music] ♪ we come from people we can be proud of.

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- this is 1010 winds. good morning. 64 degrees on this tuesday, september 11th. it's primary day in new york. thousands of voters across the city are off to the polls today to cast ballots in a host of races. much attention, of course, is focused on the democratic mayoral primary. and don't forget, special primary coverage begins when the polls close tonight at 9:00. this is just into our newsroom. a plane has crashed into the world trade center. ♪ - attention 61 engines, 35 engines, 50 engines, 64 engines, 94-- - smoke now billowing out of the top of the world trade center. - need every available ambulance, everything you've got at the world trade center now! - and he just flew right into the building. i still can't believe it. - there's a huge hole in it, and things are falling from the building itself. - then we saw the people jumping.

[rescue radio chatter] - tower two has had a major explosion and what appears to be complete collapse surrounding the entire area. - mayday. where are you? - we're across the street from the towers. we have people stuck in the building. i don't know how much more. pli wentnd called my so. my son, tim, he was working. he came over and came over with a police car. we went to the city. and as we got into manhattan, we came through the battery tunnel. - oh my god! oh my god! - and first tower had just fallen. i was in the fire department for 32 years. my son jimmy was a firefighter and 29 years old.

and i saw my son in the lobby of the world trade center. i saw the chief send him up. who knows if they run up to their death. tears you apart, you're like, "don't go up those stairs. don't go up those stairs. don't go." 'cause you know what's gonna happen. he did his job, and he died a hero. - all that we know right now is the two airplanes struck the two large towers of the world trade center. we spoke to the white house. there also apparently was an attack on the pentagon. - it was one of my first couple of days of high school. i didn't talk to my father for most of that day.

- i say we still go north. - get the [indistinct] inside! - [sobbing] i want my mommy. - it's like dust and... i saw firemen carrying other firemen with no heads. i saw, you know, a lot of stuff. it was really heart wrenching. - everybody in southern manhattan, if they can physically evacuate should, and they should just walk directly north, get beyond canal street. - i had a very weird feeling that he was okay, just knowing. i knew he was down there. i knew he was in the middle of it. - the situation that started bad just gets worse and worse and worse. - make sure they're down there. - plumes of smoke all around the area, and people not exactly sure what's going on. all the telephone lines are jammed up as people are trying to communicate. so it's a very hectic situation at this point.

- today is obviously one of the most difficult days in the history of the city and the country. the tragedy that we're all undergoing right now is something that we've had nightmares about, probably thought wouldn't happen. my heart goes out to all of the innocent victims of this horrible and vicious act of terrorism-- acts of terrorism. and our focus now has to be on saving as many lives as possible. - the number of casualties at this point? - i don't think we really wanna speculate about that. the number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ultimately. [bagpipes playing] ♪

there's no question that we lost police officers and firefighters. we don't know how many was lost. - i can tell you when it came to, and when still comes to our cops and firefighters, it's very personal for him. he had five uncles that were cops and an uncle who was a firefighter growing up. so i mean, he had dinners every single night with men who put the uniform on, who put the badges on to protect our city. i think at many of those funerals, he thought about his uncles, he thought about his heroes. and, you know, he imagined what it would have been like if it would have been their funerals. - it's gonna be a very, very difficult time. i don't think we yet know the pain that we're gonna feel when we find out who we lost. but the thing we have to focus on now is getting the city through this.

[crowd singing] - everybody's gonna mourn and feel terrible and feel awful. and then there are going to be times in which people just cry. but they have to be able to, as best they can, get back to work, get back into normal life, get back into enjoying their lives, and also stop being afraid. - the city is knocked to its knees. this city doesn't get knocked to its knees much. it was knocked to its knees. he was humbled. he spoke with a great deal of compassion. he was pitch-perfect. - there was a plan to have a big rally in central park. and police-- we can't assure safety. we can't do that. and that's how the yankee stadium speech came down. - on september 11th, new york city suffered the darkest day

in our history. it's now up to us to make it its finest hour. today, we come together in the capital of the world as a united city. we're accompanied by religious leaders of every faith to offer a prayer for the families of those who have been lost, to offer a prayer for our city, and to offer a prayer for america. the proud twin towers that once crowned our famous skyline no longer stand, but our skyline will rise again. [cheers and applause] - i'm gonna say something that isn't meant to diminish him, but he was there. and that was, you know, 90% of life is showing up, and he happened to be there at the right moment. he also projected the right sense of strength and purpose and demonstrated an absolute, unwavering certitude

that we would come back and we'd come back quickly. - new york is still here. we're here now. we're gonna be here tomorrow. the world financial center is still here. they're not gonna stop us. we've undergone tremendous losses, and we're gonna grieve for them horribly. but new york is gonna be here tomorrow morning.

- so in the aftermath, the loss of life, the absolute horror,

the shock to the sense that america, new york city had been attacked. and everybody's sense of safety and confidence was shattered. - well, we asked that the airspace around the city of new york be sealed by military aircraft. - rudy is a take-charge type of individual. he is not afraid of taking on crises and calamity. he was somebody who was calm, who was eloquent in his language. as the president was flying around, for security purposes, not landing, rudy was on the ground, news capital of america, right here. - the media, within hours, not even the first day, needed a hero. george bush disappeared. and in terms of a story arc or a narrative, the press needed, "who is our go-to guy? "who's gonna step up to the microphone? where are the dramatic messages of hope?" - there is still a strong hope that we'll

be able to recover people and find people and save them. - in the days and weeks after, we needed a leader who would try to make sense of the situation. - there are eight funerals. i'll get to four of them because i'll go to the beginning of one and the end of the of another because i know how valuable it is to the family if the mayor shows up. - and i don't agree with everything he did, but at least he tried to present some vision of how we would move through this. - i believe, that not only are we going to work our way out of this, i know that in every sense, the city is gonna emerge stronger. it's gonna emerge emotionally and morally and politically and socially stronger. - as somebody who, you know, was his son, in looking up to him, i was proud that he was recognized for the leader that i've always known him to be, and still known him to be. - the hero of new york bowed briefly

as he received his knighthood. - ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of new york city, rudolph giuliani. [cheers and applause] - it was such a strange feeling because, obviously, you know, it's wonderful to see your father get accolades that you think he deserves, and that he did deserve. but obviously, for the reasons, the tragic reasons, you'd do anything to take that day back. [melancholy classical music] ♪ - in the succeeding weeks and months, he continued to exhibit that leadership in his press conferences, the fact of attending all the funerals. he did a arguably magnificent job. but behind the scenes, he was attempting to still advance his political aims. - and then, just a couple of weeks later, he says, "we should not hold a mayoral election. we should let me continue to be mayor for three months

while i deal with the aftermath." - it will give people in the city who have, you know, fears about what's gonna happen and how it's gonna happen, a certain sense of confidence, and it will give you a transition. - he saw to effectively push off the election to stay in control beyond december 31st. - but ever since 911, almost the moment it was over, number one, you try to serve a third term. you were an authoritarian in the moment, saying, "you know what? maybe i'll just stay on." oh, that's an interesting idea. so democracy is now dead in new york because you just wanna stay mayor? - michael bloomberg said okay. mark greene, who was a democratic candidate, said okay because rudy was riding so high, was america's mayor, was viewed as this voice of new york in its time of peril. you know, freddy ferreira, to his credit, said, "no. you know, we hold elections on time." and the election was held on time.

- i am honored and humbled to serve as the 108th mayor of the city of new york. let me begin by saluting the leadership that rudy giuliani has provided over the last eight years. - it was a time when people desperately needed reassurance, and he was a reassuring figure. and in fact, i reflect on the fact that, for a long time, you would have thought, "i know what "the first paragraph of this guy's obituary is gonna say. he was america's mayor on 9/11." it may be the 10th paragraph by the time rudy finishes destroying his reputation. it's hard to believe. - he wanted more. it's addictive. and so the desire to continue it, the desire to be in the limelight is something many people can't give up.

- after 9/11, rudy didn't only have a refurbished name and a reputation, but he had a brand. - almost the moment it was over, you turned around and create this consulting firm where you're literally selling your 9/11 bona fides for money. - a lot of people were surprised when a later rudolph giuliani starts screaming about trial by combat. - let's have trial by combat. - that's the only rudy giuliani i know. the giuliani of that '92 riot, that's rudy giuliani. - he blames it on me. he blames it on you. - the 1992 police protest was sort of the birth of rudy as fascist.